
Ka-nsa-s C,ot\ tested elect lo-n . 
Speech oF DaTnuel L. vt3>f(ovva.y 

o9 Ch,o. 





Glass. 
Book. 



-Qfj 



KANSAS CONTESTED ELEC'ITON. 



SPEECH OF HON S. GALLOWAY, 

OF OHIO, 

m THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

March 17, 1856, 

On the Resolution reported hy the Committee of Elections in th. 
Contested Election Case from the Territory of Kansas. 



Mr. GALLOWAY said: 

Mr. Speaker : I do not know that I shrill be 
able to throw any additional light npon the 
questions which have for some time past been 
so fully and ably discussed. I rise rather in 
obedience to the urgent solicitations of many 
of the constituency which I represent, than in 
accordance with the dictates of my own judg- 
ment. And, sir, if I do not succeed in a clear 
expression of my views, I shall at least have 
the apology for not speaking well that the 
schoolboy had for not spelling well in the new 
school-house — " that I have not got the hang 
of the House." [Laughter.] 

I desire to be impartial in the consideration 
of this question ; and it I shall appear to those 
who dififer from me more as a partisan than a 
patriot, I only ask from such the same respect- 
ful consideration which I shall always be ready 
to reciprocate. I am unconscious of any feel- 
ing of partiality or of prejudice influencing my 
judgment in regard to the gentlemen claiming 
the position of Delegate from Kansas on this 
floor; the demeanor of each, to my observation, 
has been correct and commendable. 

Mr. Speaker, ihe country loudly demands a 
thorough investigation of this subject. With 
the gentleman from Indiana, [Mr. Dunn,] I 
am surprised that those who differ from us are 
unwilling to have a full investigation, and that 
they endeavor to preclude inquiry by interpo- 
sing special, dilatory, and evasive pleas. Every 
lawyer who has a meritorious case is usually 
anxious for a full and fair trial ; when, however, 
he is apprehensive that justice may be too 
speedily and certainly administered for the 
comfort of his client, he then earnestly endeav- 
ors, by special pleas and demurrers, to postpone 



the day of doom. He who is confident that he 
has espoused the cause of the injured and the 
innocent courts investigation, and is impatient 
for a verdict of acquittal; whilst he who suspects 
the guilt of the culprit seeks relief for the 
necessities of his friend in peril in the flaws of 
an indictment, or in some stratagem which in- 
genuity may devise. 

The past misfortunes and the present perils 
of the people of Kansas have produced through- 
out our country an unusual and profound ex- 
citement — not a mere ripple on the surface, but 
a groundswell of the national heart. This in- 
tense feeling, gradually increasing in power, 
can only be healthfully allayed by energetic 
remedial action by this House, and by every 
other branch of the Government whose power 
can be applied to the wrongs and grievances of 
the people of the Territory. I trust, then, that 
what the country demands, what justice re- 
quires, maybe granted — that we may have a 
full investigation of the whole matter. I do 
not care where the sword of avenging justice 
falls, so that it strikes the guilty. If the rights 
of the people have been trampled on, I wish to 
know who they are who have perpetrated the , 
outrage ; I do not care whether it will be found 
that they are from Massachusetts or from Mis- 
sissippi, from the North or froin the South ; my 
wish is that the rascalities of the malefactors 
may be exposed fully to the public gaze, and 
that they may suffer adequate and exemplary 
punishment. 

Mr. Speaker, it appears to me that the con- 
stitutional rule, that " each House shall be the 
judge of the elections, returns, and qualifica- 
tions of its own members," clothes us with 
plenary power. I think the discussion has 



manifested that that power has been heretofore 
fully exerted. What is the object of this rule? 
Is it not to ascertain the genuine and legal ex- 
pression of popular sentiment ? What are these 
" returns and qualifications " but instruments 
of evidence by and through which the will of 
the people is conveyed to us? If these testimo- 
nials have been perverted from their appropriate 
use, it is the duty of this House, with scrutini- 
zing eye, to follow up the channels until they 
arrive at the source, and see whether or not the 
fountain has been poisoned, and corropt streams 
have thence issued. 

I will not advert to the authorities which 
have been so abundantly presented. They have 
already been fully and ably descanted on by 
other gentlemen. The paramount considera- 
tion, upon which the majority base their report 
and resolution to send for persons and papers, 
ia the invalidity of the law under which the 
sitting member [Mr. Whitfield] was elected ; 
that law having been passed by a tumultuous 
assembly, acquiring position by acts of force 
and fraud — in palpable violation of right — in 
opposition to the spirit and letter of the organic 
act of the Territory — an assembly destitute of 

■ every element of a proper legislative body. 

To these allegations it is replied, in the first 
;place, that Mr. Reeder is estopioed by having, in 
-his official capacity as Governor, passed on the 
.returns and qualifications of the members of 
this Legislative Assembly. To this I reply, 
>tkat if wrong has been done — if wicked men 
have banded together for the purpose of pros- 
tituting the suffrages of the people of Kansas, 
and of violating the organic act of the Territo- 
ry — if Governor Reeder has leagued himself 
with these outlaws, and winked at their enor- 
mities, then is it not both right and expedient 

■ that we should use one of the conspirators, 
'who, unlike his confederates, has been smitten 
with a sense of the wrong, as State's evidence, 
for the purpose of subjecting to the power and 
penalties of the law the skulking perpetrators 
of wrong? An argument thus founded upon 
the assumed degradation of Governor Reeder 
would strongly tend to corroborate the charges 
preferred against the pretended Legislature of 

■Kansas. 

. But, again: If Mr. Reeder's present position 
:and conduct are in disreputable contrast with 
his acts as Governor of Kansas, and exhibit 
him (according to the assertions of our oppo- 
nents) to be faithless and false, then his de- 
pravity becomes a strong reason for the inquiry 
proposed by the committee. When Mr. Reeder 
was appointed Governor, he was alike eminent 
for his private virtues and professional attain- 
ments. He was indorsed by the recommend- 
ation of the Executive of the nation, and sent 
to the people of the Territory as a man emi- 
nently capable to discharge the high and re- 
sponsible duties attaching to the Governorship. 
Jf the maxim of law, nemo repcnte turpissi- 
■mus — (no man suddenly becomes very base,) is 



contradicted by his sudden and strange apos 
tacy — if Mr. Reeder has become so prostituted 
by his brief association with the men of Kan- 
sas, then it is high time that some corrective 
should be devised. When offensive corruption 
exists in matter, a disinfectant — as chloride of 
lime — is used. Why not apply an appropriate 
remedy in a case of moral defilement? If the 
Territory is so morally debased, (as the argu- 
ment against Governor Reeder indicates,) it is 
our duty to purify that infant colony, and to see 
that it shall grow up in all those elements of 
moral grandeur which will qualify it to become 
a worthy member of this Confederacy. 

The apparent inconsistency of Governor 
Reeder, in impeaching the integrity of a Le^r- 
islature, to a majority of whose members he 
had granted certificates of election, may be ra- 
tionally explained. He probably only saw the 
voters at a single election poll, and could not 
know what transpired elsewhere, except by 
testimony furnished by contestants. There is no 
evidence that he shrunk from the discharge of 
duty in any case in which allegations and proct!-. 
of illegality w.ere produced. It is not stranc,'p 
that frauds should have been perpetrated, an! 
yet the injured fail to communicate their wrones 
to the Executive. The same power which striuk 
with terror the hearts of voters would affricht 
them from exposing the wrongdoers. The 
same wicked^jingenuity which would perpetrarr- 
frauds at the ballot-box, could use the arts cl 
deception and falsehood in the chamber of th. 
Executive. Admit the inconsistencies and fr 
rors charged upon Reeder, and )'et it canu' 
be pretended that a plea of estoppel, whii 
would conclude him, could bar the claim 
people who are not even charged with any coi. 
plicity in his errors. How conveniently here- 
after can this novel application of the common- 
law dogma of estoppel (hitherto exclusively con- 
fined to judicial proceedings) be used to check 
the obliquities of legislation and legislators ! 

If Governor Reeder is now to be cstoppi 
from utterances and deeds conflicting with dc 
larations and official acts of the year 1855, th<_ 
we demand that the rule shall be applied to r. 
who have sinned, or may sin, after the simili- 
tude of his transgression. When and where, 
in the history of the country, was there an act 
consecrated more by the high solemnities of 
law? When and where was a compact more 
solemenly consummated, than that made by our 
fathers of 1820? And yet, thirty-four years 
afterwards, in the year of grace, 1854, " privies 
in blood, and privies in estate " of one of th 
parties in that grave transaction, after havit. 
secured all the advantages '' nominated in tli; 
bond " for their ancestors and themselves, an- 
nulled that sacred compact, and thus wrestf il 
from us the *' privies in blood and privies i 
estate" of the other party, all the benefits . 
a contract, for the full and faithful performan;^ 
of which, your ancestors pledged to our ances- 
tors their faith and honor. Mr. Speaker, if 



ever there was an occasion when the doctrine 
of estoppel might have been pleaded with per- 
tinency and power against any man, or any set 
of men, violating the sacred provisions of a con- 
tract, that was the hour. And if Governor 
Reeder is to be estopped, I take it the doctrine 
of estoppel will place the appropriate stamp 
upon that tragic act — the " mother of this prog- 
eny of ills." In the parodied language of the 

poet, 

— You plucked, yo7i ate ; 
The North felt the wound, and the Union, from her seat, 
Sighing through all \\&x parts, gave signs of woe. 

"Without any pretensions to the spirit of 
prophecy, I yet predict that the day will come 
when many, bitterly recollecting the time of the 
passage of the Kansas act, will utter the lan- 
guage of Macbeth in the tragedy — 

"Let that pernicious hour 
Stand aye accursed in tne calendar! •' 

Many gentlemen, hot with indignation at the 
alleged errors and perfidy of Reeder, have hurled 
at him the heaviest bolts of their wrath ; and the 
distinguished gentleman from Georgia, [Mr. 
Stephens,] not nowpresent, enrolled him, by the 
vivid comparison which he drew, in the same 
catalogue with Aaron Burr. Yes, this man 
Reeder, dishonored by a speculation in town 
lots, and by a breach of the proprieties of his 
high executive office, was removed, and the va- 
cant seat of magistracy was filled by a gentle- 
man from Ohio, who imparted special glory to 
his name and memory by aiding in that niag- 
nificent speculation of 1854, by which the Ter- 
ritories of Kansas and Nebraska were taken, 
not from the Indians, but from Freedom and 
Northern freemen. What an admirable illustra- 
tion of the ancient doctrine, " casting out devils 
by Beelzebub^' the prince of devils." [Laughter.] 
If Governor Reeder has been guilty of treach- 
ery, I ask by what epithet shall the conduct of 
his successor be characterized? I have no 
personal antipathy to the present Executive of 
Kansas, and I assail not his private character, 
. but that act of infidelity to a betrayed constitu- 
\ ency. Yes, sir, for that act Governor Shannon 
was buried deep beneath the denunciations and 
reproaches of an outraged people; and in tbat 
■ grave of oblivion would he have lain undisturbed, 
but for the resurrection voice of the Executive 
of this Confederacy. 

The President, having repudiated Reeder for 
his land speculations, looked around for some 
! man to fill his place ; and after angling unsuc- 
cessfully elsewhere, he threw his line and hait 
into a stream in Ohio, and thence drew up 
'• Governor Shannon, breathed into him the breath 
i of life, made him a living thing, and sent him 
\ into Kansas, to govern the people of that infant 
\ Territory. I have not now any unkind words 
I for the gentlemen of the South ; but I must 
\ apeak boldly of the recreant men of the North. 
The President of the United States may clothe 
men who have been false to Freedom with the 
honors of ofiSee, but these cannot hide from 



vision inglorious acts. Of such it may be said, 
as was recorded by a prophet of one who in 
ancient time was faithless to his trust — # 

'■They shall not lament for him, sayinfr. 'Ah. brother I" 
they shall not lament for him, saying, ' Ah, lord I ' or • Ah, 
his glory 1 ' he shall he buried with the burial of an assj 
drawn and cast t'orth beyond the gales of Jerusalem." 

The metaphorical language of that declara- 
tion does not too strongly express the degrada- 
tion which insulted freemen aSix to perfidy. 
Indeed, in these latter days of degeneracy there 
are some who have not even exhibited the rev- 
erent spirit of that well-bred animal that Balaam* 
rode. That ass would not pass the angel of the 
Lord that stood before him, but "ran this way 
and that way," and would not go forward ; and 
when Baalam smote him again and again, he 
turned up his eye and said : " Am not I thine 
ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I 
was thine unto this day ? " The subservient 
Northern minions of Slavery at first hesitated, 
when the angel of Freedom stood in the way ; 
but, spurred and whipped by their imperious 
riders, they obediently and patiently moved 
forward, without even uttering the whining cry, 
" Are not we thine asses ? " [Laughter.] 

I proceed to a consideration of the gravamen 
of this controversy — to the allegations contained 
in the majority report of the committee — that 
the election of March 30, 1855, was effected by 
invasion; that force and intimidation were prac- 
ticed ; that the grossest frauds were perpetrated : 
and that, in consequence of those illegalities, 
the persons then and thus elected could not 
constitute a legal and valid Assembly, and that 
all acta passed by such an Assembly are utterly 
void. I have no words of justification or apol- 
ogy for any one who participated in those wrong- 
ful acts, but am anxious, as all ought to be, 
that all who were sharers in the fraud, come 
from whatever section of the Confederacy they 
may, should be sharers in the condemuation. 

But, Mr. Speaker, I propose to exhibit some 
evidence in confirmation of the representations 
which have been made by the majority of the 
committee, and tending to exhibit the necessi- 
ty of an investigation. I will read to you the 
declarations of the St. Louis Intelligencer as to 
the alleged invasion of the Kansas polls : 

" Atchison and Stringfellow, with their Missouri follow- 
ers, overwhelmed the settlers in Kansas, browbeat and 
bullied them, and t"ok the Government from their handi:. 
Missouri votes elected the present body of men, who insult 
public intelligence and popiilar rights, by sty'ing them- 
selves 'the Legislature of Kansas.' This body of men are 
helping themselves to fat speculations, by locating ' the 
seat of Government,' and getting town lots for their voles. 
They are passing law.^ dist'ranchising all the citizens of 
Kansas wlio do not believe Negro Slavery to be a Chris- 
tian institution, and a National blessing. They are pro- 
posing to punish with imprisonment tie utterance of views 
inconsistent with their own. And they are trying to per- 
petuate their preposterous and infernal tyranny by ap- 
pointing for a term of years creatures of their own, as 
commissioners in every county, to lay and collect tasei, 
and see that the lavs s they are passing are faithfully e.\e- 
cuted. Has th s age anything to compare with these acts 
in audacity ? " 

I quote, also, an article from the Squatter 
Sovereign of April 1, 1855 : 



4 



•' ISDEPESDEXCE, March 31, 1855. 
'•Several hundred emigrants from Kansas have just cn- 
tere^our city. They were preceded by the Westport and 
Independence brass bands. Tliey came in at the west 
side of the pubUc square, and proceeded entirely around 
it— the bands clieeiing us with fine music, and the emi- 
n-rants with good news. Immediately following the bands 
were about two hundred horsemen, in regular order; fo'- 
lowins these, were one hundred fifty wagons, carnages, 
ic They gave repeated cheers for Kansas and Missouri 
They report that not an Anti-Slavery man will be in the 
Legislature of Kansas. We have made a clean sweep.-' 

This was written one day, and published two 
days after the election, at which were chosen 
the members of the pretended Legislature of 
Kansas. This needs no explanation ; it is em- 
inently significant of 'the character of the elec- 
tion of March 30. Hear a portion of an edito- 
rial article of the same paper, published August 
28, 1855 : 

^■Katsas, deprived of the aid hitherto received from her 
Southern allies, would prove an easy prey to these rapacious 
thieves of the North. If, however, the North flatter them- 
selves that this can be done, we most humbly beg leave to 
undeceivp them. We can tell the impertinent scoundrels 
of the Tribune, that they may exhaust an ocean of ink. 
iheir Emigrant Aid Societies spend their millions and bil- 
lions, their Representatives in Congiess spout their heret- 
ical theories till doomsday, and his Excellency Fraiiklin 
Pierce appoint Abolitionist after Free-Soiler as our Oov- 
ernoT—yet we xeill continue to tar and feather, drown, lynch, 
and hang, every white-livered Abolitionist who dares to pol- 
lu-te our soil.''' 

The remark — "we will continue" — indicates 

that the interesting process of overawing free- „., -- , , ,, . • ;■<•„ ;_.„^ 

men by the patriotic instrumentalities indica- the committee; and do hey not justify imme- 

--■'-- ^ diate and diligent inquiry ? But we do not 



'■Pro-Slavert Aid Societt of Platte.— We feel hap- 
py in being able to announce to our readers that the age 
of folly has passed, and that the day of good hard practi- 
cal sense is inaugurated in Weston and Plaite county. 

" The Self-Defensive Society has died the death of the 
ridiculous, and gone to the 'tomb of the Capulets: unwept, 
unhonored, and unsung. Peace be to its ashes ! 

" At a public meeting held in this place on Saturday. 
16th instant, a Pro-Slavery Emigrant Aid Society was in- 
augurated, and a committee appointed to obtain subscri- 
bers to the stock of the society. 

" General B. M. Hughes, of Buchanan, made a very 
sensible speech to the meeting, by request. He took the 
position that Free-Soileis and Abolitionists had a legal 
right to vote in Kansas, and that the South must beat them 
at" the polls by numbers. 

" We note this as an evidence that light begins to shine 
in dark quarters. Such a declaration three months ago 
would have been rank Abolitioni^ra in the eyes of the 
Argus. 

" He said that the policy heretofore pursued, of going 
over to Kansas to vote, worked badly, and must be given 
up He would never cross over to vole again. He denied 
that the Emigrant Aid men from Boston, who were seen 
in Kansas with cotton umbrellas and carpet-sacks, with 
their hats chalked from and to Boston, were bona fide set- 
tlers. They were under contract to vote twice, and they 
complied with the contract, and left for home. 

" We are encouraged the more in this hope, from a re- 
mark which fell from General Stringfellow, which was, 
that he did not intend to be quite so prominent hereaUfr 
as he had bf en heretofore. 

" We have always contended that the wild and blind 
policy heretofore pursued was doing more harm than 
good: and we rejoice with the true friends of the cause, 
that the day of blindness and folly has passed away, and 
that reason and good sense rules the hour." 

Sir, do not these statements and declarations 
strongly tend to corroborate the allegations of 



I 



ted had been auspiciously begun 

I read, also, an extract from a speech pur- 
porting to have been spoken by Mr. Atchison 
to his friends in Platte county, on the 4th of 
February. After describing the progress of 
operations with which he was connected, he 
says : 

'^Well, what next? Why, an election ft)r m-mbers of 
the Legislature to organize the Territory must be held. 
What did I advise you to do then? Why, meet them on 
their own ground, and beat them at their own game again ; 
and, cold and inclement as the weather was, I went over 
with a company of men. My object in going over was 
not to vote ; I had no right to vote, unless I had disfran- 
chised myself in INIissouri. I was not within two miles 
of a voting place. J\Iy object in going was not to vote, 
but to settle a dilficulty between two of our candidates; 
and the Abolitionists of. the North said, and published it 
abroad, that Atchison was there rcilh boivie-knife and revol- 
ver, and by God Hivas true. I never did go into that Terri- 
tory— I never intend to go into that Territory, without being 
■prepared for all such kind of cattle. Well, we beat them; 
' and Governor Reeder gave certificates to a majority of 
all the members of boih Houses ; and then, after they v* ere 
organized, as everybody will admit, they were the only 
eompetent persons to say who were and who were not 
. members of the same." 

Mr. KEITT. Where did you get that from? 

Mr. GALLOWAY. It comes from the New 
York Times, giving the full speech of General 
. Atchison. 

Mr. KEITT. And I wish to say, in this con- 
nection, that that report has been contradicted. 

Mr. GALLOWAY. I did not know of any 
authorized contradiction. My knowledge may 
not be so full as yours, and 1 do not vouch for 
its authenticity. The Missouri Democrat of 
March 12, 1856, furnishes evidence a~ little 
more recent and conclusive on the subject, 
i taken from the Weston Reporter: 



depend exclusively upon this species of evi- 
dence. Is not the fact notorious, that in April, 
1855, the editor of the Luminary, published at 
Parkville, Missouri, had his press broken and 
thrown into the river, and was himself driven 
away by a public meeting — and for what? 
Not that he was an Abolitionist ; but because 
he advocated an honest fulfilment of the pro- 
visions of the Kansas-Nebraska act, aiid used 
the power of his press to prevent his friends in 
Missouri from disturbing the peace and' rights 
of the actual settlers in Kansas. Does not 
every man who is familiar with the character 
of the individuals who have gone to Kansas, 
from various States of this Confederacy, know 
that the representation is uniform and univer- 
sal ; that on the 30th March, 1855, there was 
an invasion of the polls; that the_ ballot- 
boxes were taken by force ; and that in some 
districts the number of voters was two and 
three-fold larger than the number enrolled by 
the census one month previous? With this 
evide^nce and notoriety of what transpired at 
the election in March, we draw the conclusion 
that the Legislature, elected and organized un- 
der such circumstances of force and fraud, was 
debauched and utterly void ; that it was infected 
with the leprosy of fraud ; that no subsequent 
act could eradicate its original and inherent 
depravity ; that its enactments were but the pol- 
luted streams of a corrupt fountain; and that, 
by consequence, the law under which Mr. Whit- 
field pretends to have been elected was utterly 
void. 



6 



Mr. SMITH, of Virginia. Will the gentle- 
man allow me to ask a question here ? 

Mr. GALLOWAY. Certainly. 

Mr. SMITH. It is just this— and I really 
desire to be informed — do you know the num- 
ber of inhabitants returned by the census re- 
port? 

Mr. GALLOWAY. I would be happy to 
accommodate you, and will furnish you the 
document containing the census enumeration. 

Mr. Speaker, I present and maintain, as a 
prominent point, to which I invite the attention 
of the House, that this Kansas Legislature has, 
by its legislation, utterly violated the great 
fundamental principle of the organic act of the 
Territory; and hence that all its enactments 
contravening the constitutional law of the Ter- 
ritory are void. The distinguished Senator, 
[Mr. Douglas,] who ought to know the spirit 
and letter of the Kansas-Nebraska act, has, in 
a recent report, thus characterized that meas- 
ure: 

"The leading idea and fundamental principle of the 
Kansas-Nebraska act, as expressed in the law itself, was 
to leave the actual settlers and bona fide inhabitants of each 
Territory ' perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic 
institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution 
qfthe United Stales.' " 

These are the words expressing this "leading 
idea,'" and which may be found in the fifteenth 
section of the act : 

" It being the true intent and meaning of this act, not to 
legislate Slavery into any Territory, nor to exclude it 
therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to 
form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own 
Tray." 

Now, sir, I respectfully ask that gentleman, 
and all in this House who concur with him in 
sentiment, whether that ^'fundamental princi- 
ple" is not totally subverted by these enact- 
ments ? — 

"If any person print, write, introduce into, or publish, 
or circulate, or cause to be brought into, printed, written, 
published, or circulated, or shall knowingly aid or assist 
in bringing into, printing, publishing, or circulating, with- 
in this Territory, any book, paper, pamphlet, magaziue, 
handbill, or circular, containing any statements, argu- 
ments, opinion, sentiment, doctrine, advice, or inuendo, 
calculated to produce a disorderly, dangerous, or rebel- 
lious disaffection among the slaves of this Territory, or to 
induce such slaves to escape from tlie service of their 
masters, or to resist their authority, shall be guilty of a fel- 
ony, and be punished by imprisonment, at hard labor, for 
a term not less than five years." 

•' If any free person, by speaking or writing, assert- or 
maintain that persons have not the right to hold slaves in 
tliis Territory, or shall introduce into this Territory, print, 
publish, write, circulate, or cause to be introduced into 
this Territory, written, printed, published, or circulated, 
in this Territory, any book, paper, magazine, pamphlet, or 
circular, containing any denial of the right of persons to 
hold slaves in this Territory, such person shall be deemed 
guilty of felony, and punished by imprisonment at hard 
Tabor for a term not less than two years." 

•• No person who is conscientiously opposed to holding 
slaves, or who does not admit the right to hold slaves in 
this Terriiory, shall fit as a juror on the trial of any pros- 
ecution for any violation of any of the sections of this act." 

These are but a portion of the infamous laws 
conferring^/zeetZo/M upon the people to regulate 
domestic institutions. 

All will admit that matrimony is a domestic 
institution which ihe people ought to be free to 
regulate in " their own way." But suppose that 



interesting Territorial Assembly had enacted, 
that if any person write, print, or circulate any 
document containing any statement, sentiment, 
or iunuendo, calculated to produce a dangerous 
or disorderly disaffection among the wives of 
that Territory, or should circulate any book, 
paper, or circular, containing a denial of the 
right of pjersons to hold wives in that Territory, 
and that, for the former offence, he should be 
imprisoned not less than five, and for the latter 
not less than two years — would not the unani- 
mous judgment be, that such law-makers ought 
to be inmates of a lunatic asylum, instead of 
members of a Legislative Assembly? The peo- 
ple of that Territory could not build prisons 
large enough to hold all the felons who would 
make " statements and innuendoes" causing 
disorderly, dangerous, and rebellious disaffec- 
tions among the tvives, and who denied the 
right of persons to marry ; and it would not be 
many years until it would be more respectable 
to be inside than outside of a prison. Unless 
Slavery is a dearer domestic institution than 
marriage, I cannot conceive why slaves should 
be protected with more tenderness and care 
than wives. Is the liberty of speech and of the 
press to be thus caricatured by civilized legis- 
lators ? 

Mr. Speaker, how are they '' perfectly free? '^ 
If you, or I, to-day, in a:iy company in Kansas, 
were to express the very common, and, as we 
think, very reasonable sentiments, that free la- 
bor was more profitable and vastly more pleas- 
ant than slave labor, and that the people would 
be richer, happier, and holier, with the benefits 
of Freedom than with the blessings of Slavery, 
we would be liable to arrest ; and pJthough per- 
fectly free, we might in a short time have the 
glorious experience of the perfection of our 
freedom within the walls of a prison — a place 
not usually regarded as affording the largest 
liberty. 

Suppose some meek minister of Christianity, 
not fully having the fear of the law in his 
heart, should, whilst declaring the whole counsel 
of God, in a moment of unusual spiritual excite- 
ment utter such scriptaral sentiments as these — 
" Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to loose 
the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy 
burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and 
that ye break every yoke ?" " Whatsoever ye 
would that men should do to you, do ye even 
so to them." Might not some '' popular sov- 
erignty" Democrat, innocently suspecting that 
such words contained "innuendoes," at least 
calculated to excite " disorderly and danger- 
ous disaffections," arrest him, and start him in 
the straight and narrow way to a place where 
he would not be &o perfectly free to preach the 
free Gospel . of " peace on earth and good will 
to men," if not in his own way, at least in the 
way prescribed by the pious legislators in 
Kansas ? 

Sup"pose, on the 4th of July, some patriotic 
and fervent patriot should read from the DeC' 



laration of Independence, " We hold these 
truths to be self-evident, that all men are cre- 
ated free and equal ; that they are endowed 
with certain inalienable rights, amonof which 
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" 
might not some descendant of those sires of the 
Revolution, who first uttered those sentiments, 
which then and since have been known and felt 
to produce disorderly and dangerous disaffec- 
tions, arrest the imprudent orator, and put him 
in a place where he would be free to meditate 
on the blessings of liberty ? 

" Perfedli/ free f" So were those victims 
whom the fabled tobber Procrustes placed upon 
his iron bed. They enjoyed a, free use of their 
legs ; but, if they were not adapted to the prin- 
ciples of his legislation, he stretched them if 
they were too short, and lopped them off if they 
were too long, to suit the length of his law in 
regard to free legs. Tantalus, also, in his fa- 
bled hell, was j^^'fsctli/ free to eat and drink. 
To be sure, when he undertook to exercise his 
liberty of drinking, the water retreated from his 
lips, but yet he was free to use what he could 
not get. He was perfectly free to eat of the 
rich clusters of grapes that hung above him, 
but, when he attempted to seize them, the wind 
blew them from his grasp. So with the water of 
political salvation, and rich clusters o^ihe grapes 
of Freedom, around and over the People of 
Kansas. As soon as the thirsty and hungry 
for Freedom attempt to eat or drink, although 
perfectly fee to do so, they are seized and im- 
prisoned for exercising their appetites in their 
own way. 

Mr. Speaker, it is not many years since the 
thunders of the people were directed against a 
President and Congress of the United States, 
for their usurpation and arbitrary stretch of 
power, in causing to be enacted the memorable 
" sedition law." Thomas Jefferson, the great 
apostle of Democracy, and his disciples, have 
ever denounced it as a despotic violation of the 
liberty of speech and of the press. Yet, sir, 
that law, in all its alleged enormities, was not 
comparable with this sedition law of the Kan- 
sas Assembly. Under that odious law of 1798, 
one might offer the truth in evidence in defence: 
under this infamous law of 1854, enacted and 
advocated by the same disciples of the same 
Democracy, this poor privilege is denied; and 
the "head and front of the offending" consists 
in uttering the great truths of Liberty. 

Vv^hy, sir, if that matchless orator aad match- 
less man, Henry Clay, were today alive, and 
were to stand up. (as he only could stand) on 
the Territory of Kansas, and utter this senti- 
ment, which a few years since he uttered in the 
Senate Hall — 

'■ I repeat that I never can, and never will, vote — and no 
eartlily power will make me vote— to spread Slavery over 
territory where it does not exist'" — 

— for such a sentiment, that Prince among the 
people would be made a prisoner among de- 
based felons. Were the eccentric and eloquent 



Randolph of Roanoke alive, and were he to ut- 
ter, in the free Territory of Kansas, these 
thoughts, once proclaimed on this floor — 

"Sir, I know there are gentlemen, not only from the 
Northern but from the Southern States, who ihink that thts 
unhappy question — for such it is— of negro Slavery, which 
the Constitution has vainly attempted to blink by not using 
the term, should never be brought into public notice, more 
especially into that of Congress, and most especially here. 
Sir, wiih every due respect for the gentlemen who think 
so, I differ from them lalo ccbIo. ' Sir. it is a thing which 
cannot be hid. It is not a dry rot, that you can cover 
with the carpet until the house tumbles about your ears. 
You might as well try to hide a volcano in full operation.— 
it cannot be hid — it is a cancer in your face, and must be 
treated secundum artem'^ — 

— how certain and severe woull be his condem- 
nation. Why, we Black Republicans could 
not begin to imitate and utter such thrilling 
thoughts and burning words, and so eminently 
calculated to excite disorderly and dangerous 
disaffections — certainly such fanaticism would 
send him to the felon's cell. 

Hear the language used by Randolph of Albe- 
marle, the grandson of Thomas Jefferson, m 
Richmond, Virginia, in 1832 : 

" How can an honorable man, a patriot, and a lover of 
his country, bear to see this ancient Dominion, rendered 
illustrious by the noble devotion and patriotism of her sons 
in the cause ofLiberty, converted into one grand menagerie 
where men are to be reared for market, like oxen in the 
shambles?" 

There would have been no escape for him. 
The " old apostle of Democracy " must have 
indoctrinated him with some of his fanatical 
notions. His language sounds like that uttered 
by a Black Republican— only it is a little blacker 
than any of us use. [Laughter.] 

Hear what other fanatics of " the Old Do- 
minion " uttered on the same occasion. Mr. 
Rives, of Campbell, said : 

'• On the multiplied and desolating evils of Slavery he 
was not disposed to say much. The curse and deteriora- 
ting consequence were within the observation and experi- 
ence of the members o' ihe House and the people of Vir- 
ginia, and it did seem to him that there could not be two 
opinions abo'U it." 

Mr. Powell said : 

" I can scarcely persuade myself that there is a solitary 
gentleman in this House who will not readily admit that 
Slavery is an evil, and that its removal, if practicable, is a 
consummation most devoutly to be wished. 1 have not 
heard, nor do I expect to hear, a voice raised in this liall 
to the contrary." 

Mr. Preston said : 

"Sir, Mr. Jefferson, whose hand drew the preambte to 
the bill of rights, has eloquently remarked that we had in- 
voked for ourselves the benefit of a prir ciple which ws 
had denied to others. He saw and felt that slaves, as 
men, were embraced within this principle." 

Mr. Summers, of Kanawha, said: 

"But, sir, the evils of this system canuot be enumerated. 
It were unnecessary to attempt it. They glare upon us at 
every step. When the owner looks to his wasted estate, 
he knows and leels them." 

Mr. Chandler, of Norfolk, said : 

" It is admitted by all who have addressed this House. 
that Slavery is a curse, and an increasing one. That it 
has been destructive to the lives of our citizens, history, 
with unerring truth, will record. Tliat its future increase 
will create commotion, cannot be doubted." 

Mr. Thomas Marshall, of Fauquier, said : 
"Wherefore, then, object to Slavery? Because it is 
ruinous to the whites, retards improvement, roots out an 
industrious population, banishes the yeonaiiry, deprives 



ihe Fpinner, the weaver, the smith, tlie shoemaker, the 
carpenter, ofe.i ployment and support,'- &c. 

Mr. James McDowel, jr., of Rockbridge, said: 

""VVlio, sir, tliat looks at this property as a legislator, 
arin marks its elVecls upon our national advance, but 
weeps over it as the worst of patrimonies ? Who t'lat 
looks to this unhappy bondage of our unhappy people, in 
the midst of our society, and thinks of its incidents and its 
issues, but weeps over it as a curse upon him who iutlicts 
as U;ion hun who suflers?" 

Suppose the Legislature of Virginia should 
have passed au act similar to that of Kansas ? 
Is there a noble Virginian — and they cannot 
be other than noble, descended from such noble 
iincestors, who uttered such thrilling sentiments 
of truth — who would not have exerted the ener- 
gies which God has given him for the purpose 
of ejecting such apostates from the faith of their 
fathers from the Old Dominion? Certainly 
there are none such among the living. Yet, if 
the sentiments expressed by these men were 
uttered in Kansas, thay would send their unfor- 
tunate authors to the cells of criminals. Ah, 
Mr. Speaker, can it be that any man is so stulti- 
fied as to presume, for one moment, that such 
infamous legislation is in accordance with the 
fundamental principle, the "/eadt/j(7 idea,'' of the 
Kansas-Nebraska act — that men are to be, not 
free only, but perfectly free, to regulate their 
domestic institutions in their own way? 

I will not consume the time of the House 
with further quotations Irom the sayings of the 
distinguished dead and honored living. Every- 
body knows that the language I have read is such 
as was used by the noble men of our Republic 
in every section of our Confederacy twenty 
years ago ; yet, in Kansas, this day, all those 
men, tor the utterance of such sentiments, 
would be branded with infamy 1 And, can it 
be that the National Legislature will tolerate 
men who thus tarnish the fair fame of their 
fathers, and violate the spirit and letter of our 
charter of rights ? Will the North submit to it ? 
Never. With the poet, we can fervently say : 

'^ Is this the land our fathers loved ? 

The freedom which they fought to win? 
Is this the soil they trod ujion ? 

Are these the graves they slumber in? 
Are w-e tlie sons by whom are borne 

The mantles which the dead have worn ? 
And shall we crouch above their graves 

With craven soul and tet'.ered Ifp, 
Yoked ill with marked a'-.d branded slnves. 



And tremble at the masters wliip ? 
No 1 by their enlarging souls, which burst 

The bands and feUers round them set ; 
By the free pilgrim-spirit nursed 

Within our utmost bosoms — yet 
By all above, around, lielxw. 

Be oitrs the indignant answer — No ! " 

Never will this free American people, who 
have drawn their life-blood and the essence of 
their glorious institutions from the noblest men 
God ever made — never can they submit to such 
tyranny in this nineteenth century. Mr. Speak- 
er, if this organic act of the Territory was vio- 
lated by the Territorial Legislature — if that 
Assembly was debauched by invasion and fraud, 
perpetrated on the day of the election, or by 
subsequent illegal acts — what is the reme- 
dy ? The remedy is obvious. 

What has been the uniform practice of our 
Government in regard to the Territories? In 
every other Territorial act prior to the Kansas- 
Nebraska act, there was contained the provision 
that the laws of the Territory should be submit- 
ted to Congress, and if disapproved, be declared 
null and void. That asserted power embraced 
the remedy. If that salutary provision was un- 
intentionally or designedly omitted in the Kan- 
sas act, does that omission diminish the power 
of Congress, or change the settled practice and 
law of the country? W^l any one contend that 
Congress had no power of tliis kind until each 
Territorial organic law was enacted ; and that 
the power was new-born with the birth of each 
act ? No man can stultify him.self by adopting 
such au absurdity. The remedial power yet 
remains where the framers of the Constitution 
placed it — it is in Congress — it exists, to a cer- 
tain extent, in this House. 

We cannot, by our separate action, reach the 
root of this wide-spreading tree of wrong and 
iniquity in Kansas; but we can lop off a branch 
of that same tree, protruding into this House in 
the person of General "iV hilfield. If we cannot 
strike the axe at the root of the tree, we can 
withhold the nutritive sap, without which its 
vigor will decline, and thus at least partially 
teach the wrong-doers in Kansas that the '• way 
of the transgressor is hard," and that justice, 
although it may linger, will jet have free course, 
and be glorified in the triumph of law and 

I ORDER. 



documents Published by the Z&epublican Association of 
Washington. 



State of Affairs in Kansas, Speech by Hon. Henry 

Wilson, in the United States Senate. 16 pages. 

The Wrongs of Kansas. Speech by Hon. John P. 

Hale, in the United States Senate. 16 pages. 

Official Proceedings of the Republican Convention at 

Pittsburgh. Containing the Address, Declaration of Principles, Letter 
of C. M. Clay, the Platform presented by Francis P. Blair, Esq. 24 
pages. 

The Dangers of Extending Slavery, and The Contest 

and the Crisis. Speeches by Hon. William H. Seward, at Republican 
Meetings in Albany and Buffalo. In one pamphlet. 16 pages. 

Oration at Plymouth, Dec. 21, 1855. By Honorable 

William H. Seward. 16 pages. 

Letter of Francis P. Blair, Esq., to the Republican 

Association of Washington, D. C. 8 pages. 

The Slave Oligarchy and its Usurpations — Outrages 

in Kansas — The Different Political Parties — Position of the Repub- 
lican Party. A Speech by Hon. Charles Sumner, delivered in Faueuil 
Hall, Boston. 16 pages. 

Reasons for Joining the Republican Party. A Letter 

by Samuel A. Foot, late Judge of the Court of Appeals of New York, 
and now a member of the New York Assembly. 8 pages. 

A Document for the People — containing the Declara- 
tion of Independence, and the names of the Signers ; the Constitution 
of the United States, and the Amendments; the Fugitive Slave Law 
©f 1850 ; the Democratic, Whig, and Lidependent Democratic Plat- 
forms ©f 1852; Hon. Charles Sumner's Speech, " Freedom National, 
Slavery Sectional." Forty-eight pages. |4 per 100 copies. 

The Poor Whites of the South. By Geo. M. Weston. 

8 pages. 

The One Path : or, the Duties of the North and South. 

A Discourse delivered in the Unitarian Church, Washington, D. C. 
By. M. D. Conway, Minister of the Church. 8 pages. 

Spiritual Liberty. A Discourse by M. D. Conway. 

8 pages. 

IN THE GERMAN LANGUAGE. 
The Address and Declaration of Principles of the 

late Republican Convention at Pittsburgh. 16 pages. 

Letter of Francis P. Blair, Esq., to the Republican 

Association of Washington, D. C. 8 pages. 

The Dangers of Extending Slavery. 16 pages. 
The Contest and the Crisis. 16 pages. 

By publishin? large editions of each document, we are enabled to issue 
them at the following cheap rates : Documents of 8 pages, 62 cents, and 
IG pages at $1.25 per 100 copies ; or, enveloped singly, and sent free of 
postage, at $1 and !;»2 per 100 copies. 

Address: L. CLEPHANE, 

Secretary Rep. Ass., Washmgion. D, C. 



bUi'.LL ^c BLA^'CHAKD, Printer.-, Washington, D. C. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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